While Delhi were sitting pretty at the top of the table, Rajasthan came into the match requiring a win to stay on road to the semi-finals. Virender Sehwag won the toss and he elected to bat first. There was one change in the Delhi line-up with Dirk Nannes replacing Daniel Vettori. Rajasthan too had made one change in their eleven - Amit Singh came in place of Chitnis.

Going into a crucial match, Rajasthan started off with a disciplined line to the openers making it difficult for them to score freely. The tight bowling paid dividends when Gambhir and Sehwag got out in the 3rd over to Munaf Patel. The slow nature of the pitch and the tight line by the Rajasthan bowlers made it difficult for Dilshan and de Villiers to keep the score-board ticking.

The pair started off carefully, trying to build on a partnership. The miserable fielding in the IPL continued into this match when Amit Singh put down a simple catch off Botha's bowling, giving Dilshan a second chance. Making use of the chance offered, Dilshan went on to partner de Villers as the South African reached his 3rd IPL fifty. de Villiers and Dilshan were once again the key for the team as they went on to bring up the highest third wicket partnership for Delhi. Rajasthan finally got the wicket of Dilshan when the Sri Lankan, trying to go for quick runs towards the end, perished to Botha.

Karthik came in at the fall of Dilshan's wicket. Along with de Villiers, the pair added to the tally of runs, scoring at a rapid rate towards the final overs. A good effort from de Villiers helped by contributions from Dilshan and Karthik took Delhi to a competitive total of 150/3 at the end of 20 overs. The Protea remained unbeaten on a well made 79 off just 55 balls. His innings included 8 fours and 1 six.

The beginning overs in the past few IPL matches have resulted wickets going down early. It was no different when Rajasthan came on to bat. While the South African skipper got out for a duck to Nannes in the second over, his opening partner and the in-form Rob Quiney was dismissed by Nehra in the third over.

More success came for the Delhi side when Naman Ojha holed out to Sehwag off Salvi's bowling. Once again, a failure at the top order put Rajasthan in a spot of bother.

Sehwag employeed his spinners, Mishra and Dilshan to bowl in tamdem to further curtail the scoring rate. Meanwhile, Botha was promoted up the order to get the move on for Rajasthan. While he donned the role of an aggressor, Jadeja who came in at number 5, played for singles and rotated the strike. Together, the duo played risk-free cricket and built a strong foundation for the chase.

Seeing that the batsmen were getting comfortable, Sehwag made a bowling change, getting Salvi back into the attack. His ploy worked when Jadeja nicked the Salvi delivery to the keeper Ojha, bringing the 55 run partnership to an end. If that was not sufficient, Rajasthan had a major blow in the next over when Yusuf Pathan got out to a nothing delivery bowled by Mahroof. At this stage, Rajasthan were at 82/5. Yusuf's dismissal resulted in a landslide for Rajasthan with more wickets going down. Rajasthan could not recover from there, eventually losing the match by 14 runs.

Post match Quotes:

Warne: I thought it was a par score, we did not play well upfront, that's where we have struggled in the whole tournament. 150 I thought was a gettable score, unfortunately none of the top order batsmen put their hand up. Hopefully we can win our last game against KKR and you never know we can still make it to the semifinals.

Sehwag: AB and Dilshan are in good form and they did a fantastic job after me and Gauti did not click. I thought 150 was a good score on this wicket as we have a good bowling side. Our plan was to bat out the 20 overs and later Karthik, Manhas can hit the ball. I am looking forward to getting some runs in the next couple of games.

de Villiers (MoM): Pretty tough upfront with the new ball and then after I got to 30 scored freely after that. My plan was to get in for the 20 balls and then score. Our coach mentioned before the game it is a big field and run well, it worked well in the end. I thought 140 was a decent score on this. Expecting Viru and GG to come through in the important part of the tournament, Sky is the limit if they do.

Trivia:

Dilshan reached 300 runs in this year's IPL, he is the second after de Villiers to do it for Delhi. He now has 329 runs to his credit at the end of the match.

The partnership of 87 for the third wicket between Dilshan and de Villiers is the highest for Delhi this season.

de Villiers reached his 3rd fifty of the IPL this year. He also has a century to his credit.

Munaf gave away 25 runs in the 19th over, which is the 3rd costliest after the 28 by RP Singh/Harmeet Singh against Kolkata and the 26 by Mortaza against Hyderabad.

de Villiers becomes the second batsman after Matty Hayden to reach 400 runs in the IPL this year. He now has 405 runs to his credit at the end of the match.

Dinesh Karthik equalled the most dismissals for a wicket keeper in an IPL match when he collected 4 dismissals against Rajasthan.

Munaf Patel now has the highest score for any number 11 in all IPL matches. Munaf made 23* against Delhi Daredevils.